Rafael Nadal’s countryman, Nicolas Almagro, will lock horns with David Goffin of Belgium in the third round of the Sony Open on Monday. This will be the second time that he will be facing Goffin.
These two players had faced each other in the Sony Open last year as well. In that match, Almagro had demolished Goffin and had secured a straight set win.
This year hasn’t been that good for Almagro. He has played well at times, but, he has not been consistent. His first tournament in the season was Mubadala World Tennis Championship. He performed quite well in that tournament and reached the title round where he was defeated by Novak Djokovic in three sets.
After that tournament, Almagro participated in the Australian Open and reached the quarter finals there. In the quarter final, he was playing against his countryman David Ferrer. He had a fabulous start in that match and he won the first couple of sets. But, after that, he lost the plot and ended up being defeated.
After the Australian Open, Almagro started struggling with his form and in the tournaments that he played after that, he didn’t manage to put up impressive performances.
Almagro has played 18 matches in the ongoing season out of which he has won 13 and lost 5.
On the other hand, Almagro’s opponent Goffin is only 22 years of age and he is currently at no. 47 in the world rankings. He has had an extremely poor run this year so far. He has been defeated in 8 out of the 13 matches that he has played this year. However, he is a promising young player and he has the capability of pulling off upsets. So, Almagro will have to be careful against him.